How to Buy Litecoin With a Credit Card: Step-By-Step • Benzinga

Litecoin, an altcoin that has been on the cryptocurrency market since 2011, is almost identical to Bitcoin on a technical level. However, Litecoin investors enjoy Litecoin’s faster transfers.

The Litecoin Network aims to process blocks every 2.5 minutes compared to Bitcoin’s 10 minutes; Litecoin confirmations and sales are generally faster than alternative coins. Litecoin investors believe that this increased block processing time, along with the cryptocurrency’s more expansive memory system, will lead the coin to offer a more time-sensitive money transfer system in the future.

How to buy Litecoin with a credit card

Because Litecoin is more unique than other cryptocurrencies, you may be curious how you can purchase this cryptocurrency with a credit card. Here’s how you can in six simple steps.

Step 1: Create an account with Coinbase

By far the easiest way to buy Litecoin with a credit card is through Coinbase.

Coinbase is a relatively simple cryptocurrency buying platform. Though Coinbase’s site is well-designed and easy to use, it only allows users to purchase Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, and its spinoff assets.

To create an account with Coinbase, visit its website and click on the “Sign Up” button on the top of the homepage. Then, enter your personal information, solve the reCAPTCHA puzzle, and move on to the next page to enter your credit card information.

Step 2: Create a Litecoin wallet

You can hold your Litecoin in your Coinbase account, but this is generally considered to be less safe than keeping your Litecoin in an encrypted wallet.

Step 3: Confirm your account

When you first create a Coinbase account, you are limited to purchasing $500 worth of crypto when using a credit card.

You can increase this limit by verifying your identity. After logging into your Coinbase account, click on the “settings” tab, then click on the “account levels” subtab. Scroll down until you see “level 3 verification.”

If you aren’t already verified at this level, click to be redirected to the personal identity verification form. Here, you’ll have to upload photos of either the front and back of your driver’s license or your passport. After uploading your verification, feel free to close the window and come back later—Coinbase will send you an email after the verification process has been completed.

Step 4: Initiate a buy

To initiate a buy, return to your Coinbase dashboard and click on the tab titled “buy and sell.” In the section titled “cryptocurrency,” click on the drop-down menu and select Litecoin, and select your credit card from the drop-down list of payment methods.

Enter the amount of Litecoin in USD you’d like to buy and click on the blue button that says “buy Litecoin.” This will initiate the buy. Review that the information you’ve entered is correct, and confirm the buy once more on the following page.

Step 5: Check your account for your Litecoin balance

Your Litecoin balance should immediately appear in your Coinbase account, though it typically takes at least two business days to see the transaction appear on your credit card statement. To check that your Litecoin has arrived safely, click on the tab titled “dashboard” on the top left-hand side of the page.

On your dashboard, you will see a complete summary of the holdings in your Coinbase account. Scroll to the bottom of the page to the section titled “your portfolio” to see the makeup of your profile. Here, your total number of Litecoin will be listed, and you can check to see that each of your individual transactions has been completed on the right-hand column labeled “recent activity.”

Though you’ll see your Litecoin in your Coinbase account as soon as you complete the purchase, you cannot withdraw your funds for at least 12 days following your first buy. To see how much time is left until you can withdraw your Litecoin, click on the “accounts” tab, then click on the button labeled “send” under the Litecoin tab. After opening the “send” tab, you’ll see a summary of the amount of cleared Litecoin in your account; click on the blue link titled “Don’t see all your funds?” to receive a summary of the pending deposits still awaiting clearance, like the example below:

After your Litecoin has cleared, you can deposit it into an external wallet or cryptocurrency exchange like Binance. Open your Litecoin wallet and look for your wallet’s address—it should be a string of seemingly random numbers and letters. Copy your wallet address and open your Coinbase account.

Click on the tab titled “tools,” and click on the subtab titled “addresses.” Click on the drop-down menu, select “LTC wallet,” and paste your wallet address. Then, click on the button titled “create new address” to add the wallet to your list of withdrawal locations. This will allow you to easily deposit Litecoin to your account should you want to convert it into another cryptocurrency in the future.

Return to the “accounts” tab and click on the “send” button under the tab titled “LTC wallet.” Center your Litecoin wallet address, double-check that the information you’ve entered is correct, and deposit your Litecoin to your wallet.

This transfer may take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour to complete depending on the number of other users currently initiating transfers with Coinbase. Double-check your wallet after an hour and ensure that all of your Litecoin have arrived.

Final thoughts

Coinbase offers a quick and simple way to purchase a few of the most popular cryptocurrencies using a credit card. However, if you’re looking to buy more obscure coins like Ripple, Tether, or the hundreds of other altcoins on the market, you’ll need to use Bitcoin or Litecoin as a transfer currency and covert them on a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance. Don’t limit your cryptocurrency investing to the “big three” coins—check outBenzinga’s cryptocurrency market news feed to learn more about market movements of other coins.